


trees have voices

by killthepoet



Category: Naruto
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Don’t worry it’s not between Naruto and Sasuke, Hurt/Comfort, M/M, Non-Consensual Kissing, Paranormal
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-03-02
Updated: 2021-03-02
Packaged: 2021-03-14 22:49:26
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 5,763
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29799060
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/killthepoet/pseuds/killthepoet
Summary: Someone seeming to be Naruto's clone starts appearing to Sasuke.
Relationships: Uchiha Sasuke/Uzumaki Naruto
Comments: 6
Kudos: 46





	trees have voices

**Author's Note:**

> title is from a quote by catherine fisher
> 
> just to share: i wrote this with the image of naruto and sasuke looking the way they did in The Last

It starts with shadows. Sometimes he thinks he sees something in the corner of the room but finds nothing when he checks. Just ancient walls and a cabinet his size. It starts with missing things, too. One day, he opens his cupboard and finds his mug missing. The next, he loses a sock. It’s nowhere in the house, wherever he looks.

One midnight, his senses prickle at the feeling of being watched. But when he opens his eyes, he’s alone in the darkness of his room.

Sakura attributes it to his deteriorating eyesight.

At the very bottom of letter, it says: _P.S. I’ll be home in three days. Let’s eat out at Ichiraku’s! I haven’t had ramen in nearly a month and I feel like I’m dying. I miss you. Tell me about your week._

Sasuke snorts softly.

He grabs his paper and pen from the desk and just stares as though a proper response will suddenly materialize in front of him. Like the words and letters will somehow tumble out his mind and arrange themselves into a coherent sentence. _I’ve been doing okay_ is too stale. _My eyesight is worsening_ is too heavy. _I think I’m seeing things_ will just be plain strange.

The sentence itself doesn’t even sit right with Sasuke.

Something snaps him out of his thoughts. A soft creak, a muted tap. He senses for chakra but finds none. No more sounds come after, too. Yet he leaves his pen and paper on the table to stand up and check.

It’s sunny outside. The forest, it seems, has a life of its own. But that’s that: the only life here other than Sasuke is non-human. There’s no one around for a mile. He slides the door shut and returns to his room.

Nothing seems out of place, initially.

But Sasuke is a trained Shinobi. And Shinobi notice things.

If he looks closely, the picture frame with the Team 7 photo Naruto had (forcefully) placed on Sasuke’s nightstand is oriented a bit more to the right than it usually is. The upper right of the letter Sasuke has been reading is creased at the slightest. The room is a tiny bit chillier.

Sasuke keeps his guard up the entire day but nothing comes.

Eyes bright, Tenten watches him from behind the counter. “Do you need it bagged?”

“No,” Sasuke murmurs, and Tenten nods. She watches him slide the new kunai into the holster on his left leg, its hilt peeking once tucked. Wooden and polished. Sasuke hands her the payment.

“Is Naruto back?” she asks.

“No.”

“Oh.” Her eyebrows furrow as she hands him his change. “I thought I saw him last night.”

“If he’s actually back, he hasn’t come to see me.”

“Impossible,” she says, frowning. “He’d go to you first, no matter what.” Sasuke watches her face crumple to a funny expression until she shakes her head. “I’m probably just seeing things. It was late at night, anyway. Probably just some shadow or something. Nevermind me. Thanks for the purchase, Sasuke. Come again!”

Sasuke steps away from the counter with a nod. When he leaves, the furin on the door chimes faintly, like a whisper.

Someone’s home.

When he slides the shoji open, it creaks lightly. Soft light spills from the kitchen to the living room.

Even before Sasuke enters the room, Naruto is already looking his way, waiting.

“You’re here,” he says, and his chakra’s a dimmer kind of bright. Like a clone’s.

“I live here,” Sasuke returns. “When did you come in?”

“Just a while ago.”

Sasuke doesn’t say anything. Just pads to the stove to get the kettle running. Even with his back turned, he can feel Naruto’s gaze cutting through like kunai. Naruto comments on the one nestled on Sasuke’s right leg.

“That’s new.”

Sasuke turns around, hip leaning on the counter.

Naruto looks him slowly down, then back up—the action unconsciously making Sasuke want to cross his arms in some sort of move to cover himself if only he had two of them. But he just has one, and he settles with marginally adjusting his cloak instead. It’s different, the light on Naruto’s eyes. With a quirked lip, he asks, “Scared of something?”

“What?”

“Figured that’s why you bought a new kunai.” He shrugs, hands folded together. “To protect yourself from something.” Then, his hands move until one is sitting under his chin and he’s staring at Sasuke. “Maybe you could get one for me, too. I think I’ll need it.”

Sasuke stares at him. “Why are you here, Naruto?”

“I just wanted to see you, Sasuke,” he says, gaze piercing. “Is that so wrong?”

The kettle sings, just then. Sasuke turns back around to turn it off and to maneuver around the kitchen to prepare tea. After, he places the cup he made for Naruto on the table and leaves with his own. His skin prickles on his way out—for some odd reason. Naruto calls, “Where are you going?”

“Getting dressed,” he says.

He shuts the bedroom door behind him and places the steaming mug on his dresser. After, he goes outside to check on Naruto but finds the rest of the house empty, quiet. The light on the kitchen remains on and the cup of tea is untouched. Sasuke flicks the light off and steps outside to settle on the engawa. His own tea’s already cold by then.

In the morning, his messenger hawk arrives on his windowsill. When Sasuke plucks the letter off its beak, he finds that it’s from Naruto.

_We lost contact with the target so I think we’re staying here for a bit longer. Won’t be back in 3 days like I said but I’ll return as soon as I can. I’m safe, don’t worry. I’ll send a longer letter once everything has settled._

“Did you see Naruto yesterday?” Sasuke asks.

Tenten blinks, the hands folding the flap of the pouch pausing for a bit. “No, I didn’t,” she says. “Is he actually back? Did you see him?”

Sasuke says, “I think he sent a clone.”

“Oh,” she answers, but there’s a tilt to her head. Probably catching the odd uncertainty trailing his sentence. “That makes sense. Did he visit you?”

“Yeah.”

“Figures,” she smiles and hands him the pouch. The weight of the kunai fits snug on his palm. “I’m guessing you’re buying this for him?”

Sasuke nods. “He asked me to.”

They settle payments. Tenten sends him off with one last wave and the same furin on her door chiming. He ties the pouch to his belt and starts his trek home.

Sasuke rarely ever dreams. Tonight, he has them. He’s sitting on a sleeping bag, treetops hanging above him, and there are three more bags beside him. The third one is empty. There’s faint rustling somewhere in the bushes until Naruto is stepping out of the forest, grumbling.

He looks at Sasuke and growls. “Bastard. How’d you get back so fast?”

“What?”

“Yeah, sure, play innocent,” Naruto scoffs, settling back into the bag beside Sasuke.

Sasuke glares at him. “I don’t really know what you’re playing at.”

“You spooked me earlier!” he scowls, and Sasuke’s brows furrow. “Hiding behind the tree like a still fucking ghost. You think I didn’t catch you? I’ve half the mind to accuse you as a pervert.”

“Naruto.” Sasuke eyes him pointedly. “I’ve been here the whole time.”

“What the hell do you mean?”

“It _means_ , dumbass, that you’re accusing someone who just woke up. I don’t know what the hell you’re talking about.”

Naruto stares at him, blinking wildly. Then, his face turns as white as sheet. His eyes trail back to the forest where he came from and he turns paler. He looks back at Sasuke and says, “I wasn’t alone.”

“What?”

“I wasn’t alone, bastard,” he starts stammering, and Sasuke starts hearing a faint ringing in his ears. “Someone else was there, behind the trees. It looked like you with the black hair and—and the blue shirt. I yelled at it because I thought it was you but it never moved and talked back and—Sasuke, I was being _watched_ —”

“Shut up.”

“But—but it’s a Shinobi though, right? I’m sure it’s an enemy, right? Please tell me I’m right, Sasuke. It can’t be anything else other than a person—”

“Shut up!” Sasuke says, the ringing in his ears increasing in volume. “Wake Kakashi-sensei up.”

And all at once, the ringing turns deafening until it stops. Sasuke doesn’t even realize he’s ducked down to the forest floor with his eyes shut and his hands on his ears until his eyes open. He blinks at the ground, feeling faint, before sitting back up. When he looks, Naruto is staring at him, gaze blank. The forest looks wide and unfamiliar and dark behind him.

“Wake Kakashi-sensei up, Naruto,” Sasuke croaks, something akin to dread settling on the pits of his stomach.

“Your kunai, Sasuke. Do you have it?”

“What?”

“Your kunai.” Naruto lifts one with his hand. “You need it to protect you from bad stuff, don’t you?”

Sasuke’s hands slide to his holsters but find none of his blades. When he looks back up, Naruto is still staring at him. He flicks his fingers to show Sasuke’s kunai behind his own like a magic trick, and it is then that Sasuke notices both blades are bloodied. Then, Naruto smiles, a slow lift of the corner of his lips. He crawls to Sasuke, hand touching his arm and crawling up to his face.

He strokes Sasuke’s cheek and croons, “You don’t need to protect yourself from me.”

Against all odds, Sasuke feels his blood run cold.

When he wakes, for real this time, he’s on his bed. The kunai beneath his pillow is still there when he checks. The room is dark and he’s alone in his house in the outskirts of Konoha. He stares at a dark spot at the corner of his room until he tires his eyes enough to sleep.

It’s just a minor reconnaissance job in the Land of Rice Paddies but Sasuke accepts anyway. He packs a bag for three days and locks his house. When he arrives, he trails the target until dinner. Then, he retires to the lodging.

Almost unsurprisingly, Naruto is there, waiting.

“What are you doing here?”

“Checking up on you,” Naruto says simply, eyeing him all the way until he sits. He watches as Sasuke removes his cloak and shoes but not his holster and the kunai lodged within it. When Sasuke looks up, he looks back up too.

Then, he smiles.

Skin unconsciously prickling, Sasuke decides to ask, “How’s the mission?”

“Huh?” Naruto blinks. “Oh, good. Like I told you in the letter, we ran into some trouble but we’ll be alright.”

Sasuke examines him but doesn’t say anything more. Normally, Naruto would ask him about his day or start rambling about his day but this one keeps quiet. He drinks in the surroundings and keeps his eyes on Sasuke, gaze always trailing after him like a thought.

“Do you want to eat out for dinner?” Naruto asks, sudden.

Sasuke pauses. “Where?”

“At any ramen place,” he says simply, looking at Sasuke. “It’s my favorite, isn’t it? I haven’t had it in nearly a month and I’m dying.”

The next day, Sasuke receives another letter from Naruto.

_We’re back on track! We camped out last night just to get a hold of the target and finally saw him at around midnight. Lee apprehended him with that burning passion of his. He escaped, unfortunately, but he’s badly injured so it’ll be easier to find him. We didn’t get a wink of sleep since yesterday and I’m surprised I still have the energy to do anything at all like write this letter. But I know I said the last time that I’ll send a longer letter this time so here goes…_

He stares at the letter. In the lone bathroom of his lodging, Sasuke could almost hear the drip-dropping of the leaking faucet, where he sits.

Sasuke keeps out of his lodging the entire day. He trails the target the entire day and has to scare a pathetic group of bandits off a farm. The letter from Naruto remains on the desk when he returns to the lodging at night. The room is empty.

He washes down and retires to bed early.

Around dawn, he wakes up to a still empty room. He just knows he won’t be able to go back to sleep even if he tries. So he gets up and starts his day early. He sits by the desk and writes back to Naruto. By the time he finishes, a slice of light is starting to peek through the windows.

He decides to walk around in the village. The shops are still boarded up, the streets mostly empty. He directs his route to the outskirts of the village where a river with headwaters from the Fire Spring passes through.

Gravel crunches underfoot. When he deviates from the road, he realizes he’s not alone.

Sasuke looks at his direction to let him know.

Almost instantly, Naruto walks out of the forest, out of the shadows. He smiles at Sasuke, knife sharp, and asks, “Where are you going?”

Sasuke stares at him. “What are you doing here?”

“Checking up on you,” he says, like he has been for the past few days.

“I don’t need anyone to check up on me.”

“I know you don’t,” he still has that same smile on his face, “but that doesn’t mean I don’t want to do it. I just want to see you, Sasuke. Is that so wrong?”

“Why are you really here?”

Naruto is closer than Sasuke realizes. “Does there have to be another reason?”

“You’re supposed to be busy with your mission.”

“Not busy enough to not send a clone,” he laughs, eyes light.

Sasuke watches him. Behind them, the river flows quietly. He says, “I don’t need a clone to check up on me.”

Naruto tilts his head. “No?”

“No. Go away or I’ll stick a kunai in your throat,” he says, blunt. “If you’re a clone then I can do just that, right? I can kill you off and you’ll just disappear into nothing.” He takes a blade out of his cloak and slots it against Naruto's skin. “What do you say?”

He stares at Sasuke, unspeaking. Unmoving. His eyes are blank, almost. Then, he smiles again in that same way of his and steps away. “My, my, Sasuke,” he says. “If you wanted me to leave then you could’ve just asked nicely.”

Sasuke stares back at him. “Somehow I don’t think that will work.”

There’s a mean glimmer in Naruto's eyes. “Of course it will,” he says, pulling away further. “It always works to be nice. See you around, Sasuke.” Then, he turns around and walks away.

On the last leg of his trip, he gets an unexpected guest.

“Are you sure you don’t want to take payment?” she asks with a general smile to Sasuke’s direction.

“No, it’s fine,” Sasuke murmurs. “I’m on my way back too anyway.”

The old lady smiles, toothless, sightless. Her wooden walking stick creaks like old bones as it pokes the ground. Sasuke adjusts his cloak and slows down his pace. Beside him, she walks in turtle steps.

This particular trip home will last three days, at least.

At nightfall, they stop at a clearing nestled in a nearby forest. The old lady folds her legs beneath her and starts lighting a fire. Even with Sasuke offering to do it, she insists, holding the wood between her wrinkly hands. She manages after three tries. For dinner, she only accepts one rice ball Sasuke proffers and nothing else.

“You can sleep on my sleeping bag,” Sasuke says. “I’ll take watch.”

“Thank you,” she says, tucking herself into the bag.

Sasuke works on his letter the remainder of the night and decides to tell Naruto about the old lady. _I met her near a farm on my way out of town. She asked if I could accompany her back. It’ll take longer, getting home_ , he writes.

He doesn’t know what time he sleeps but he does. He rests his head against a bark of a tree and lets his eyes close. There’s a muted spiral between his eyebrows. It’s the type of pain he’s not a stranger to but somehow feels worse and worse by the day.

He falls to a dreamless sleep, that night.

“I’m sorry I’m slowing you down,” she apologizes.

Konoha is still miles away but closer than it has been. Sasuke gulps down his water and wipes his mouth with the back of his hand. “I don’t mind,” he says, placing his jug back in his bag. “I’m not in a hurry to get home anyway.”

For some reason, she looks surprised at that.

“Oh,” she says, “I thought… Well, I was getting the idea that you were waiting to get back home to someone in particular. Or waiting to see someone far away.”

His mind supplies a land hidden among clouds.

She laughs feebly. “Ah well, nevermind me. I’m getting old.”

Later, when they stop for a while near an old and crumbling castle for her to rest, she mentions something again. She looks straight at Sasuke, and if Sasuke didn’t know any better, he’d think she sees him. “You know,” she says, “You have weird energy around you.”

“What?”

“I don’t mean that you are strange,” she clears. “Just that you have strange energy around you. A flickering chakra—your own, I suppose. It feels like it’s slowing down, like something’s leeching off of it.”

Sasuke feels himself still. “Can you tell why?”

She shakes her head. “I can’t determine the source of disturbance,” she says. “Maybe I would have been able to, if I were younger and I still had half the power I had.” She folds her hands on her lap and looks away—to the sky further away. “But like I said, I’m getting old. None of the things I feel seem accurate anymore. And I don’t have the sight to confirm them. So don’t think too much about it.”

He does, anyway.

They arrive in Konoha at night. She stops nearly a kilometer away from the gates and turns to Sasuke. “Thank you for escorting me back,” she says, walking stick against the ground. “Are you sure you don’t want to take payment?”

“That’s alright.”

“Okay,” she says. “Thank you again. You were a great help.”

Sasuke nods. She reaches out to pat his shoulder, and Sasuke doesn’t pull away. Her palms are neither warm nor cold. When she walks away, she goes straight to the forest and doesn’t look back.

The headaches frequent. Everyday a phantom pain settles itself between his eyes. He sees light where there isn’t, sees floaters spiralling down in a lazy dance. His trips to town lessen from occasional to rare.

Naruto—if he even is Naruto—visits but never stays.

One day, on his way back to his house from a rare trip to town, his ears pick up on a scraping branch.

His hands instinctively fly to his pockets.

Another creak, nearer this time.

For some reason, his hair stands on end. He feels his muscles lock in alarm but wills himself to remain calm. There’s another louder creak. Even without the Sharingan, he can tell the location. Sasuke snatches shuriken off his holsters and throws. The blades slice against the branches of a tree. He hears a yelp before someone falls to the ground in a loud thump.

It’s Naruto—of course. Chakra vivid and blazing and overwhelming.

“Bastard!” he yells, rubbing his hip as he stands up. “What was that for? That hurt, you know!”

Sasuke stares at him.

“Jerk,” Naruto continues growling.

He blinks once, twice, before registering anger. “What the hell is wrong with you?”

“Wh—” Naruto sputters indignantly, “Why are _you_ angry at _me_? You threw shuriken at me! You made me fall off a tree! I should be the one who’s furious!”

“You were following me—"

“But you didn’t have to throw a shuriken—”

“—like an enemy, Naruto! I registered you as a threat! If I were as brash as you, you’d be dead by now with a blade lodged in your throat!”

Naruto crosses his arms. “You know I don’t die easily.”

“You will if you sneak up on me again,” he threatens with gritted teeth.

“Why are you so angry?”

“Because you never learn, Naruto!”

Naruto stares at him, surprised. “It wasn’t anything serious, Sasuke. I just wanted to reach your house before you so I could surprise you because I reached home earlier than what I told you in the letter. I wasn’t planning on… on—”

_Scaring you._

When Sasuke breathes, he feels his chest rise and fall. He realizes he had unknowingly turned on his Sharingan. It twists back into itself as Sasuke calms his breathing down. He can feel the beginnings of a headache mutely throb on his temples.

“Sasuke,” Naruto says, taking a careful step to him. “Are you okay?”

“Go away.”

“Sasuke—”

“Go!” he grits, looking away. Naruto freezes. Quietly, Sasuke repeats, “Please. Leave me alone for a while.”

Naruto stares at him before nodding, face grim. “Anything you want, Sasuke.”

He turns away and leaves.

When Sasuke wakes up, he isn’t alone.

He counts the tells: the minute prickling of the back of his neck, the murmur of air parting to make way for someone, the barely noticeable creak of Sasuke’s floorboards. There is a sliver of moonlight from the window to his left. That which illuminates blond hair.

Sasuke has his hand on his kunai immediately.

“Why is it,” comes that same voice, “whenever I see you, you always have that kunai with you?”

He tries to adjust his eyes to the darkness. “What are you doing here?”

 _Weird energy_ , he hears the old lady’s voice in his head. _You have strange energy leeching off of you._

“Checking up on you,” the Naruto impostor answers, expectedly. “I always do that, don’t I, Sasuke?”

“I told you to stop doing that,” he says dangerously.

“Why not? Don’t you want me around?”

“You’re not Naruto.”

The imposter finally comes to the little light the window provides. “How could you say that?” he says with a little smile that Sasuke barely even sees. “I look like Naruto, don’t I? I talk like him.”

“You don’t act like him.”

“No?” Sasuke’s hand on his kunai tightens when he realizes the imposter is coming closer. “But do you really want that? Do you want me to act the same way—careless and oblivious to everything?” He reaches for Sasuke. “Do you want me to act like I don’t know about what you think about me?”

Sasuke marginally freezes when the hand touches his cheek.

“That’s right, Sasuke,” he hums. “I know what you think of me. I know how you feel about me. You’re not exactly that subtle—if someone examines you closely. I could read you like an open book.” His thumb moves to the corner of Sasuke’s lower lip, not quite doing anything. Just touching. “What would you do if I asked you to tell the truth, hm?”

Sasuke feels his muscles lock up and he can’t move. “You’re not Naruto.”

“Okay,” he says softly. “If that even is true, then I’m the next best thing you have to Naruto. I feel your loneliness rolling off of you in waves, you know. So young, but so incredibly lonely. And the only person you love does nothing but worsen it everytime he leaves.”

Sasuke grits his teeth, staring at blue eyes that seem to mirror his soul. He can’t seem to look away.

“I can take away your loneliness,” the imposter offers.

 _No,_ he wants to say but his throat constricts on itself.

“I can do just that, Sasuke,” he croons.

_Go away._

“I can make it all go away.” He comes closer but Sasuke can’t move. He can’t speak, he can’t act. All he can do is freeze and stare and try to pull his thoughts out of the quicksand. He looks so, so much like Naruto. And when he draws impossibly close, Sasuke can’t pull away.

The press of their mouths is as soft as a whisper.

But it feels so wrong. This Naruto is more cold than warm, more rigid than alive. When he kisses Sasuke, Sasuke feels nothing but every fiber of his being stop like a river frozen over. _This isn’t Naruto,_ the thought boomerangs in his head dumbly. _This is nothing like him._

When the imposter pulls away, Sasuke feels everything return. It comes rushing, like hot molten lava. The anger and rage and resentment. He pulls up his kunai and slices it against skin as a warning, inches deep.

“Go away,” he says, voice trembling in anger. “If you come to me again, I will do more than just this. I will make sure you never get to set foot on this world again in whatever form.”

The imposter stares at him. Then, he pulls away with that same blood-curling smile.

“It was nice seeing you, Sasuke,” he says. “If nothing works out for you, I’ll always be here.” He looks at Sasuke one last time before stepping to the corner of his room, where the light doesn’t touch. The room goes back to being empty.

Sasuke feels his head spinning and he lies back down on his pillow.

The kunai, when he checks, is stainless and bloodless as if unused.

Sasuke wakes up, the second time, to what feels like below zero degrees temperature. Opening his eyes feels like looking into a camera lens zooming in except the adjustment never comes. His sight remains grainy against the blinding morning light.

It’s so cold he almost expects his breath to come out in puffs.

When he reaches out for something, anything, his hands come into contact with his kotatsu, warm to the touch. It is then that he realizes that the rest of the room is at normal temperature and the coldness he’s experiencing is exclusive to his own bones.

He feels another chill rack through his body and he closes his eyes.

No one is around for miles.

Naruto comes by, eventually.

Sasuke has no idea how long it has been since they’d last seen each other. It could have been a week or days or even hours for all he knows. Time comes to him in confusing, blurry streaks. Like a beam of light going past his eyes quick.

“Sasuke?” he hears Naruto call out. “Sasuke, are you home?”

There’s familiar mumbling until Sasuke hears his heavy footsteps pad to where his room is. “Sasuke! I thought you weren’t—” When Sasuke opens his eyes, his words fall short. “What is—are you okay? You look...” He comes closer to hold the back of his palm against Sasuke’s forehead and Sasuke’s eyes shuts close at the touch. “Oh my—you’re heating up, Sasuke! You’re scorching. What the hell—I gotta call Sakura-chan. Yeah, I better call—”

Sasuke doesn’t even realize he’s slipped to unconsciousness until Naruto is nudging him awake. When he opens his eyes, everything is misty except for Naruto’s clear blue gaze.

“I sent a clone to Sakura-chan,” he says softly. “She’ll be here soon. Just tell me if you need anything, okay?”

Sasuke breathes. “Water.”

“Water,” he repeats, standing up. “Yes. Water is good. Let me just—” He leaves the room, and Sasuke hears his clamoring in the kitchen, loud like he is. Like the true Naruto is. When he comes back, he hands the glass to Sasuke and babbles, “If you need anything more—food, maybe? Just let me know. I can send a clone to buy you some. Or, um, if you don’t want to wait that long, maybe I can whip up something—”

Sasuke puts the glass down. “Let’s wait for Sakura’s instructions.”

“Yes. Yes, of course.” Naruto nods, taking the empty glass from him.

Sasuke has his eyes closed when Naruto comes back from the kitchen. He feels Naruto’s warm hand touch his face and it’s the last thing he remembers before he slips into another dreamless sleep.

High fever, Sakura diagnoses. Rest up, drink plenty of fluids. Don’t stress him out—this last part she directs to Naruto, pointed but playful, and Naruto whines in response. Sasuke barely registers the wet cloth pressed to his forehead.

Before Sakura leaves, he thinks he hears her discuss something with Naruto in a low murmur but he isn’t sure.

“Rest up, Sasuke,” Naruto says once they’re alone, and his gaze is searching. “I’ll wake you up to take your medicine, okay?”

Sasuke sleeps.

He gets woken in random bouts: to drink water, to take his medicine, to change into cleaner clothes. He eats too, eventually. Naruto force-feeds him soup he says he bought from a peddler near the gates of Konoha. It barely tastes like anything but he swallows it down. By the hour, his drowsiness worsens. Naruto stays by his side the whole time.

Once, Sasuke tries to reach for the medicine on his nightstand but touches upon nothing. When Naruto sees him, he stares at Sasuke—looking conflicted—until he hands him the medicine, just a few inches away from where Sasuke thought it was.

“I’ll just go, um, wash the dishes,” Naruto mumbles after, eyes suspiciously misty.

He leaves Sasuke’s windows open for air. Outside, a bird perches on the sill and stares.

“Sakura told me about your eyes,” Naruto mentions the next day.

Sasuke pauses. “Did she?”

“Yeah,” he says. “I really didn’t want to believe it at first but then I see—see how you are right now and—” He swallows, “I’m sorry, Sasuke. I really am. I wish I could help.”

“It’s not your fault.”

“I know.”

“Then why are you apologizing?”

Naruto shakes his head. “I just—you don’t deserve it, Sasuke. Everything you’ve ever experienced in your life and everything you’re experiencing right now. I really, really wish could take it all away—”

“You don’t have to.”

He keeps his mouth shut, bottom lip trembling.

“You don’t have to, Naruto,” Sasuke says quietly. “You don’t have to help everyone. You can’t take everyone’s pain away. It’s not your job.”

“Sasuke,” he says.

“You’re not obliged to do anything for me.”

Naruto doesn’t say any more. Then, in a soft whisper, he tells him, “What if I want that?”

Sasuke stills. “What?”

“What if I’m okay with having an obligation to you?” he continues, staring at Sasuke. “I chased you for years, Sasuke. I braved the hurt and the pain just to have you back and I would gladly do it again if I had to. What if I’m okay with being tied to you?” He swallows, “What if… what if I want to be with you?”

Sasuke feels the same cold settle in his bones. “Don’t say things you don’t mean.”

Naruto shakes his head as if there was something somber about it all. “I never do that,” he says. “You know that, Sasuke. I mean everything I say. Especially when it’s to you.”

“Don’t say that.”

“Sasuke.”

“Don’t.” He closes his eyes, watery from the fever or his deteriorating vision or something else entirely.

Quietly, Naruto says, “You’re the only one I want to be with my entire life.”

“You say things so easily.”

“It’s easy because it’s true,” he tells Sasuke. “I’m sorry for spooking you the other day, by the way. I really wasn’t planning on it. I just wanted to surprise you for a bit.” The chair screeches, and Sasuke feels the side of the bed dip. “I missed you. The letters weren’t enough. I wish I could have sent a clone or gone home earlier.”

Sasuke opens his blurring eyes. “You didn’t send a clone?”

“…no,” Naruto says, catching on. “Why do you ask?”

“No reason,” he lies.

He looks at Sasuke but lets it go. “Okay. Are you hungry? Do you need anything more to eat?”

“No,” he hesitates but adds on anyway: “About what you said earlier.”

“What?”

Sasuke doesn’t continue.

“Oh,” Naruto realizes. His gaze softens. “Yes. What about it?”

Sasuke can’t find it in him to continue.

“Sasuke.”

The words tangle in his throat like vines.

“Sasuke,” Naruto repeats, eyes and mouth all light, “It’s okay.” When Sasuke doesn’t speak any more and makes it clear that he doesn’t want to elaborate, Naruto faintly swallows and says, careful, “Sasuke… if I get this wrong, don’t hesitate to tell me off, okay? Push me away as soon as I cross the line, okay?” Then, he draws closer, watchful gaze chasing the breath out of Sasuke. He carefully places his palm on Sasuke’s jaw and leans in. “Anytime now,” he murmurs, too close.

Sasuke doesn’t push him away.

He is warm. Warmer than anything. When this Naruto kisses him, everything feels unbearably light and hazy. But despite the softness of the kiss, Sasuke feels the weight of it settle in his bones and make a home out of it. When Naruto tilts his head and presses closer, Sasuke sees the entire room set alight. Naruto’s warm hand on his jaw is the only thing that keeps him anchored.

Naruto pulls away with a soft breath. “Sasuke,” he exhales, “I love you. Please say something. Anything. I love you. I love you so damn much. Say something, please—”

“Usuratonkachi,” Sasuke mutters and pulls him in for another kiss.

Later, Naruto fondly nuzzles Sasuke’s cheek, mumbling happily. Sasuke doesn’t say anything. He lets himself be held, staring at the streaks of light on the ceiling. Naruto feels warm and alive and real.

His eyesight worsens. The snug weight of the bandage starts becoming a familiar feeling to his skin. Naruto starts staying in his house longer.

_So young, but so incredibly lonely._

”Sasuke,” Naruto calls out, the shoji sliding open in a soft creak. “Dinner’s ready.”

Sasuke remains standing on the engawa. “Hey.” Naruto comes closer to press a kiss to the side of his head, right beneath the band. “What are you thinking, huh?”

“Nothing,” Sasuke says.

The forest, he knows, has a life of its own. When he turns back around, he almost hears it call out to him in a faint whisper.

_Come back._

He answers, _Not today._

Sasuke turns to Naruto and lets himself be led back into the house.

**Author's Note:**

> i'm [here!](https://econaruto.tumblr.com)


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